Sunrise
by ArkeirynAyelle
Summary: When Jacob left Forks, trying to get away from it all, little did he realise what turn events would take. Contains very mild, completely non-graphic slash.
1. Chapter 1

I didn't know where I was, or what day it was. I had no idea of how long I had been running, no memory of the number of hours I'd slept or the amount of sunrises I had seen.

All I knew was that I couldn't get away.

Even after running for hours, days, weeks, I could still hear them in my head. I could still hear their thoughts, even if they did not try to talk to me personally, and as far as I ran, I still could not get away.

So there was no solace for me in my wolf form. I'd phased back near a dirty looking café on the side of the road and had finally found relief from the voices in my head. But the original pain, the reason why I had phased into wolf for so long, hit me with full force.

Bella. Bella and Edward. If he killed her…

I wasn't cold, even in just the pair of thin trousers I had 'borrowed', but I was hungry, so I made my way towards the café. It was only as I cautiously walked through the door that I realised I had no money. Yet the café was hardly busy, and I didn't think they would mind me sitting there for a bit. I could even work there, for food and shelter, I thought.

It was hardly surprising that the café was empty, though. The window faced east, and through it I could just see the night sky lightening, showing the coming of the dawn. Sighing, I headed for a table by the window, as far away from the other tables as I could get.

What would I do if that leech killed her? Would I try and kill him? I tried to keep my rage under control as I thought – I didn't want to turn into a wolf here, in the middle of a café, after all. But my blood boiled at the thought. If he killed her… I couldn't help but decide that I would kill him, it if ever came to that.

But there was the other side of the coin, too. What if he didn't kill her? What if he successfully turned her? What would I do, if my best friend, and the girl that I loved, turned into one of those leeches? What would I do if every time I saw her, her scent tore at my nose, her very presence made me want to kill her?

Would it be that she ended up dead, whatever path she took?

"Are you okay, dear?" I turned around, startled. I hadn't heard the kindly woman standing behind me approach.

"Erm… Yeah, thanks."

"Do you want anything?" I realised she must work there.

"I'm sorry, I have no money," I said. "If it's okay, can I just sit here please?"_Can you leave me alone?_

She smiled, seeming to hear what I hadn't said. "Sure." Nodding to me, she turned away and headed towards another table, where a young, scruffy couple were sat. I turned back to the window.

I wished I had imprinted on Bella. I wished that I was everything she needed. I wish that she had ended up with me instead of the leech more than anything else in the world. Because if she had, she would be safe. She would have a long, happy life, and would die at her rightful time. If the leeches hadn't been around, maybe that's what would have happened.

Apart from the imprinting thing, of course. I sighed. I had tried to imprint on her, but it had not worked. It just did not work that way. But we would have been happy.

_What if you had been like Sam?_ a small voice said in my head. _What if you had imprinted on someone else? What if you had broken her heart, like the leech did when he left? _I sighed. At least the leech loved her. If she had ended up with me… I don't know whether I could have loved her all her life.

"Here you go dear," the kindly voice behind me said. This time, I jumped. I really needed to be aware of what was going on around me. Turning, I looked at her. "Here's a hot chocolate for you," she continued.

"I didn't order it…" I started, but she winked at me.

"On the house," she said. I looked at her for a moment, then smiled.

"Thanks," I said, taking the warm drink from her fingers. I didn't need it, but it was nice to feel the warm cup in my hands, and to remember back to when I was just human, with no wolf involved, when I used to hold a cup of hot chocolate in my hands on a cold winter's day and talk and laugh.

But the memory wouldn't stay forever. As I turned back to the window, my thoughts fled back to Forks, to where Bella was. Her and the leech.

And they were getting married. She and the leech were getting married. I remembered the wedding invitation, and the letter that the leech had sent to me. Would I even go? I frowned. I didn't want to be where _they_ were, and there were going to be a lot of them. The whole family would be there, for a start, and although we worked well when facing off those others… They were leeches, and they were taking away Bella. I didn't know if I could face it if I went.

But could I live with myself if I didn't go? I bit my lip as I stared out of the window, watching the sky become gradually lighter. Could I live with the fact that I had missed one of the most important days of Bella's life, and one of the last where she would be human? Could I live with myself if I didn't give her just _one more chance…?_

And Sam had told me – had asked me – to come home when I could. I should head back, I decided. When the sun first reared its head from below the horizon, I would head back to Forks.

"Excuse me?" I heard someone say behind me. I frowned. Yet another person who I had not heard approach. I wondered whether to just pretend that I was deaf, and continue to watch the eastern sky, waiting for the moment when I would go. But that was rude, and the sun was not far off now. I turned.

If I was anyone else, I would probably have recoiled from the person on sight, even just slightly. He looked maybe a year or two older than me, and was tall and very skinny. His eyes were wide and haunted in his gaunt face, and his hair was long and lank, and could possibly be dark blond when washed. He shivered in his pale jeans and thin t-shirt, and was eyeing the hot chocolate in my hands with a hunger that could have frightened me.

But I wasn't anyone else, and when I saw him, all breath was knocked from my body as an overwhelming sense of protectiveness filled me.

"Can I… I mean, I have no… and you're not…" I handed him the hot chocolate silently, my brain working on overdrive. I wanted to protect this strange, scrawny creature, I realised. I wanted to hold him in my arms and never let the world touch him again. And I realised, as I watched him sink gracelessly into another seat at my table, gulping the lukewarm drink, that this strange feeling was far stronger than anything I had ever felt before in my life. It was like… He was more important to me than anything that had ever happened to me before.

I remembered what I had said to Bella, when I told her about Quil and Claire. 'When you see_her_, suddenly it's not the earth holding you here any more. She does. And nothing matters more than her. And you would do anything for her, be anything for her… You become whatever she needs you to be, whether that's a protector, or a lover, or a friend, or a brother…'

The only difference here was the gender. The only difference here was that Claire was a girl, and this… and he was not.

As the first fingers of light shot above the horizon, I realised that it was time for me to leave. But I couldn't. I couldn't just leave _him_here.

"Thanks," he said, reclining into the chair and relaxing slightly.

"What's your name?" I asked. I _had_ to know his name.

"Amadeus. My mum… bit of a classical freak."

"Are you okay?"

"I…" His eyes narrowed. "Yes."

"You're not." I knew he wasn't. I just knew. "You need food and shelter and somewhere warm."

"So do you… well, you look like you do." I realised I was just sitting there wearing a pair of trousers and almost laughed. Of course, he didn't know that I didn't feel the cold.

"You need it more," I said. "I… I'm actually just about to head back home. You… You want to come with?"

My heart sank before he even opened his mouth. I knew what he was going to say by the further narrowing of his eyes, by the tightening of his grip on the cup he was still holding, by the stiffening of his muscles. I lowered my head. "Never mind," I said. "You don't want to…"

"Wait," he interrupted. I looked up, frowning. "Wait… I…" He shook his head. "I… goes against all logic, but…"

"You will?" He nodded, and I had to refrain from phasing into wolf and howling for joy. Instead, I smiled.

"Come on, then." I stood and held out my hand. After tentatively looking at me, he took the hand and allowed me to pull him to his feet. _I'm coming home, Bella,_ I thought. _And I'll come to your wedding. I shouldn't be late._

But there was something I had to do first. As I led Amadeus out away from the shop, I remembered that I was further from Forks than even _I_knew, and I probably could not get back in time by normal means. I stopped and turned to him.

"Before we go," I said, "there's something you should know about me."

"You're… don't… don't kill me… are you?" There was real fear in that voice, and my protective instincts flared up.

"No," I almost growled. "I'm not going to let anything hurt you." I tried to get my racing pulse under control and took a deep breath. "But that's not what I meant. I…" I paused. "It's easier if you see this. Just… Please don't run." Stepping away from him slightly, I turned away from him and pulled off my trousers.

"You're…" Amadeus started, and I heard him take a step back, but before he could go further than a step, I phased into wolf, keeping my mind carefully blank. I turned to see him staring at me, his mouth half open, but he wasn't running any more. I took this as a good sign, and turned around again to phase back and pull my trousers back on.

"You… what…" I heard him gulped. "Well, that was… unexpected."

I turned around, biting my lip. "You won't run?" I asked.

For a long moment, Amadeus just stared at me. Then the tiniest smile began to form on his face.

"I won't run."


	2. Chapter 2

He didn't run, either, as I took my trousers back off and phased into my wolf form. For a brief moment, I wondered what to do with the trousers, but Amadeus seemed to realise my problem. He picked them up, bundling them into his arms, before climbing gingerly onto my back. Once he was settled, I began to move; slowly at first, but as we moved away from habitation, and as he relaxed more, I began to pick up speed.

I didn't know where we were, and I didn't know how far away from home we were, but what I did know was that I could easily find my way back. My own scent led a trail through the wild, leading me back home, back to La Push, and ultimately back to Forks.

For a moment, I wondered what Bella would think, when I turned up to her wedding with Amadeus in tow. I knew I would never go anywhere without him – not now, not when I had found him – but I had no idea what Bella's reaction would be, and even though I had found him now… I still loved her. I still loved Bella, and would always love Bella. Amadeus, however… Amadeus was my sun, the centre of my life now. That is what imprinting was about.

And I couldn't help but wonder if she would hate me, now I had turned out to be… well, I wasn't gay, not really. Just because Amadeus was a guy, it didn't mean that I was gay. Amadeus was just the exception to the rule.

However, I didn't think about Bella long. I _couldn't_ think of Bella long. My pack mates were far more important. Quil, Embry, Sam… What would _they_ think about me imprinting on a guy? What would _their_ reaction be?

I could hear their thoughts in my head, too. They were ignoring me, I could tell, giving me what little privacy they could when I was in wolf form. It was only Quil and Seth who were in wolf at that moment, and I tried not to think about them too much. I didn't want them to realise I was thinking about them… and then to realise what else I was thinking about – to realise what had happened to me.

Because, even though they had not ostracised Quil when he had imprinted on Claire, even though she was two, I still didn't know what they would make of me. Claire was still female. She would grow up and be a woman, and then everything would be okay. Amadeus was a different matter. Amadeus was male. Amadeus would never grow up to be a woman, would never be able to bare me children, would never be a vessel for me to pass on the Quileute genes, and our wolf inheritance.

I slowed only when the night was darkening, and when Amadeus seemed tired. He climbed from my back, stretching his stiff joints, and looked around. We were in a small glade in a wood, I don't know how far from the road side café. It seemed like a lifetime ago when I had met Amadeus.

I phased back into my human form and pulled on the trousers that Amadeus had dropped on the ground.

"Where…?" I heard him ask.

"I don't know," I answered.

"What… don't hurt…"

"I'm not going to hurt you!" I said, trying to suppress a growl. I'd been with him all day, in the wilderness miles from any habitation. I could have hurt him all day, and I hadn't. Why didn't he trust me not to hurt him now?

"Sorry." I looked at him and saw the bags under his eyes and the drooping of his eyelids. He was tired, I realised, more tired than I had even thought.

"Do you want anything?" I asked softly. He glanced up, his eyes wide.

"Hungry," he said at last. "Cold."

"I'll catch you something." Pulling my trousers back off – and why we couldn't phase with clothes on, I don't know – I turned into wolf and went hunting.

It didn't take me long to find a rabbit, and when I returned I saw Amadeus had built a pile of sticks and was trying to light a fire.

"You don't need to do that," I said. "I can keep you warm, and we don't want to attract attention."

"Sorry," he whispered.

"There's no need to be sorry," I said. "I hope you like rabbit." He shrugged. Sighing, I roughly pulled the skin from the flesh. He winced, but I ripped a bit of the flesh off anyway, and held it out to him. He stared at it for a long while.

"Not cooked," he said at last. "My mum… it's bad for you."

"It'll be okay. It's only for a few days." _I think._ "It's better than no food, anyway." He still stared at it, and I sighed. "Tell you what," I said at last, "next time we go near a town, I'll take you to a proper restaurant."

"No money," he said.

"We'll find a way." The corners if his mouth turned up slightly and he took the rabbit from my hands. I slumped down on the grass and gestured for him to sit down next to me. He sank to the floor, still watching me warily as I ripped a piece of rabbit for myself and ate it.

"You must be cold," I said at last, swallowing my last mouthful. He nodded.

"No fire," he said. "I'll freeze."

"You don't have to freeze," I said. "I'm not cold."

"Not cold?"

"No. It's part of the whole wolf thing. I have a seriously high body temperature."

"Well… I don't."

"Come here." I reached out towards him and he shrank back slightly. My chest tightened as my eyes met his narrowed ones. _I wish he would just _trust_ me,_ I thought. "Fine, be cold," I said, turning my attention back to the rabbit.

I almost jumped when, barely a minute later, I felt a hand on my arm. Looking up, I met a pair of hollow eyes. _So green,_ I thought as I saw them, recognising them as Amadeus'

"Cold," he said. I nodded and wrapped my arm around him. He huddled up against me, shivering and tense, but as time went on, and as the pair of us slowly ate the rabbit in my hand, he relaxed slightly.

"Try to get some sleep," I whispered after I finished the last mouthful of the rabbit I was eating. Amadeus looked up at me, his eyes wide, still chewing. "You're exhausted," I explained.

"Okay," he replied quietly, after swallowing the morsel in his mouth. I smiled.

"Good night," I said.

"Good night," he replied.

But I didn't go to sleep. How could I, when there were all sorts of things out there, all sorts of things that could hurt us. _That could hurt Amadeus,_ I amended. It was hard for anything to hurt me, but him… He was so fragile, he felt so breakable in my arms. I wondered what would happen if I squeezed him slightly too much. Not that I would ever do such a thing, of course. Hurting Amadeus would hurt me. I couldn't cause him harm, even if my life depended on it. He was cold too. I tried to wrap more of my arm around him. He was freezing, and he needed to be warm. Gradually, I felt his skin heating up, despite the cold night, and I smiled slightly, before turning my attention to the woods around us, alert for danger.

"Why did I have to meet you?" I heard him whisper after a few minutes. "Why did I have to meet you?" He gave a quiet laugh. "I don't even know your name!"

"Jacob Black," I whispered. "Jacob Black of the Quileute tribe, from La Push, near Forks." I could tell by Amadeus' tensing of muscles that he hadn't realised I was awake.

"Sorry," he whispered. "Didn't mean to…"

"I wasn't asleep."

"Sorry."

"You don't have to be sorry." I sighed.

"Where's… Where's La Push?" My eyes widened, although I doubt Amadeus noticed in the gloom.

"Washington," I replied. "It's not really near anything." I smiled. "It rains a hell of a lot there."

"I like rain."

"Well good. Because when I say a hell of a lot, I _mean_ a hell of a lot."

There was a short silence for a while, before Amadeus spoke again."

"Why… the café, you were… why?"

"I…" I swallowed. I couldn't _not_ tell him. He was everything to me, and I… "There's someone there. Someone I like a lot. She… She doesn't like me. Not in the same way, not like I liked her. Not as much as I liked her. She had someone else, you see. He was… He was everything to her. She nearly died when he left. He's like her drug."

I heard Amadeus sigh. "Why… you're going back… right?"

"Yeah, I am." I smiled humourlessly. "She's getting married to… to her drug guy."

"Name?"

"Edward Cullen."_Leech._

"What's he… I mean, is he… nice?"

"She likes him. I… I don't." I focused on the trees surrounding us. "There's… You know the whole wolf thing?" Amadeus nodded. "Well… Cullen, he's… He's a leech."

"Leech?"

"Leech, Cold One, blood-drinker… vampire." Amadeus stiffened.

"And this… you left her to him?"

"She loves him. More than anything, she loves him. And I… I couldn't stay anymore. The wedding's soon. I don't know how long away, but I know it is soon. I don't even know what day it is now."

"I don't either."

"You should sleep," I repeated. "You really should sleep."

"You don't want to know…?"

I understood what he was going to say, even though he never finished that sentence. "If you don't want to tell me why _you_ were in that café, then I don't want to know," I said. "Tell me if and when you're ready."

The night drew on, but I could tell Amadeus wasn't asleep. "You're… the wedding… going?" he said at last.

"Yeah," I answered. "She's my friend. I should be there for her. And…" _And I'm over her now. I'm over her, I was ever since I imprinted on you. But you don't even know what imprinting is._

"And…?"

And this was one thing I couldn't tell him. Imprinting on him… I understood my side of it. I understood that it was something that I couldn't help, something that I didn't _want_ to help, didn't want to get rid of, because it was the most amazing thing I had ever felt in my life. Amadeus was more to me than anything.

But I didn't know what he would think of it. I didn't know whether he would run from me when he realised exactly _what_ I felt for him, exactly _why_ I had taken him, seemingly on a whim, from his home to here.

"Go to sleep," I whispered.

"And…?" he prompted again.

"Go to sleep," I repeated. "It's… It's complicated."

"So's life," he whispered at last. "'Night."

"Good night." This time, I paid more attention to what he was doing than the surroundings. I knew exactly the moment when he slipped into slumber.

"Love you," I whispered, and turned my attention back to the outside world, back to protecting him.

----------

Yeah, I wrote another chapter, even though this was originally going to be a one-shot. I found out that I couldn't leave Amadeus and Jacob alone.


	3. Chapter 3

True to my word, as soon as I heard a town nearby, the roaring of the cars echoing through the woods in which we ran, I turned and headed towards it. Just before we got to the town, I phased back from my wolf form and the pair of us began to walk.

I wondered whether going to town had been a good idea, though, when I saw Amadeus' reaction. As we approached, he shrank behind me, shivering slightly, and his grip was almost excruciating on my hand.

"You want to go?" I asked. "We don't have to come here, if you don't want. We'll just have to eat rabbit again."

Amadeus gulped. "No," he said. "I…" He took a step forwards and side by side we headed into the town.

No one gave us undue attention, though, and soon Amadeus was more relaxed and looking around him. We walked past shops galore, and I wondered whether I should try and acquire myself a better outfit. It wasn't like we were getting stared at or anything, but I still felt slightly conspicuous.

We saw a pizzeria where the main street and a side street met, and Amadeus pointed towards it. "No pizza for ages," he said.

"We need to get hold of money, first," I whispered back. "We can't pay with nothing." I looked around. _How can we get money…?_ Suddenly I smiled and turned to Amadeus. "I have a plan," I whispered.

And that's how I ended up sitting in the middle of the sidewalk in a town in my wolf form, Amadeus sitting next to me. I supposed he was getting colder and hungrier, but if my plan worked, we would have plenty of money for food.

For a brief moment I felt guilty. We would be taking money off someone who had earned it, and I had always been taught that that was wrong. But Amadeus was hungry, and I needed to protect him. The end justified the means, I told myself.

Pretty soon I saw a likely looking man walking down the street. He was wearing a suit and was carrying a briefcase, and was counting notes in his hand. I nodded at Amadeus, and as he came towards us, Amadeus put our plan into action.

"Change, please?" he asked. "Please?" The man looked at him with disgust in his eyes.

"Get away from me, you filthy faggot," he hissed. I almost leapt for the man when I saw the pain in Amadeus' eyes, but I had to stick to the plan.

"Please," Amadeus pleaded, and the man took his eyes off the money in his hands. I struck. Leaping up, I grabbed the money with my mouth, not being particularly careful with my teeth, and when the man turned with a shout to hit me, I growled. He stopped in his tracks, staring at me with fearful, wide eyes.

"Get your dog to give me back my money," he hissed. However, there was no reply from Amadeus, and I looked to see that he was putting the plan perfectly into action by hiding in the nearest alleyway. At least, I assumed that's where he had gone. I couldn't actually see him. Smiling to myself, I growled again at the man, and he blanched. I took a step forwards, and he ran.

I tracked Amadeus to a nearby alley, but as I phased back I realised that he was sobbing against the wall. Pausing only to pull on my trousers, which had been tied to my leg, I went up to him and put my hand on his back.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"That… That man…"

"That man was an idiot, and we have all his money now," I said. "Come on. Let's get you something to eat." I took his hand and led him to the pizza place, where I ordered two of the largest pizza's on the menu. The waitress looked strangely at us, and Amadeus shrank back as her gaze swept over him, but she left without a word and returned with the pizzas and a casual "Enjoy your meals".

Amadeus seemed to relax as he ate, and soon he had eaten his whole pizza and was eyeing mine up hungrily. I smiled and pushed the plate across, and he began to eat the half pizza I had left too, although much more slowly than he had eaten his own.

"What's… home, yours, what's it…?"

"La Push? It's… Well, I love it. It still rains loads, but… but I love it." Amadeus waved at me to continue. "You really want to hear all about my home?" I said. "It's not that amazing, really."

"I am going there… right?"

I smiled. "I suppose that _is_ where I am dragging you." I sighed and leaned back in my chair. "La Push… It's where we live. There's my dad, and me, and I have these older sisters too, but I don't really get to see them much. You see… There's more like me In La Push. We developed because of the… the vampires, living near Forks. We developed to protect our people from them. If they had never come, we would never have turned into this.

"But that's a bit morbid," I said. "You don't want to hear about the vampires." I thought for a moment. "Sam's the leader of the pack," I said at last. "He's… Before I joined, before I had turned, I thought that it was a cult. I didn't understand. I hated Sam. Now… He's my pack leader. I have to do everything he orders. And I don't hate him any more.

"Then there's Quil and Embry. I was devastated when Embry changed. I didn't know all about it then, of course. We talked about Sam, about his cult following, and then suddenly Embry was part of that cult. I thought he had betrayed me. Then I changed, and… I felt so sorry for Quil. He didn't realise what was going on until it was his turn. He loves being a wolf now, because he's in on the secret.

"Then there's Seth and Leah. They're brother and sister, and Leah's the only female member. It's like all the old legends are coming true with us, because we're supposed to be just male, but she isn't. And there's Jared and Paul, and Brady and Collin.

"And we can all hear each others' thoughts when we're in wolf form, too. They know exactly why I ran away. You get used to it, but it… it's horrible, sometimes. You have no privacy. But it also means that we all belong together, we're all a huge family, almost. It's good and bad."

Amadeus munched silently for a few minutes. "Must be nice," he said eventually.

"What must be?" I asked. "Hearing each others' thoughts?"

"To… belong."

"Listen, you belong somewhere, too."

"No," he said. "I… I ran. Don't belong."

"You belong with me. As long as you're my friend, you belong with me." _As long as I'm imprinted on you, you belong with me, and imprinting lasts forever. _"You belong somewhere."

Amadeus smiled. "Don't have to say that."

"It's true," I said. "You… I hope that you'll be a good friend."

"Barely know me."

"I… Look, there was a reason that I picked you up in that café, you know."

"And…?"

_And I can't tell you what it is. You'll run from me, for sure. I can't have you run away from me like that._ "And it's still complicated," I said at last. Amadeus sighed.

"More La Push?" he asked at last.

I nodded. "There's this cliff, where we go diving," I said. "We have a beach, too, and it's great to swim. I have to take you cliff diving sometime, though. It's… amazing. There's nothing like it."

"Sounds scary."

"It is, but it is also one of the best things in the world." I smiled. "And I'll take you to the pack meetings. Sam should let me. They let Bella in, after all, and she…" _And I've not imprinted on her._ "You should hear the wolf legends properly, around a fire." I shifted slightly in my seat. I missed home, I realised. I missed La Push more than I thought I could, and I didn't even miss it because of Bella any more. Next to what I felt for Amadeus, what I felt for her was insignificant. Pretty much how what she had felt for me was insignificant next to what she felt for the leech.

"We should go," I said. "We need to start moving again. Have you finished?"

Amadeus nodded, gesturing to the empty plate, but I frowned. "You're still hungry, aren't you?" Amadeus nodded again, looking guilty. "Well, there was loads of money in that wallet," I said. "We could get other things for you to eat."

After leaving a few dollars on the table top, we left the pizzeria and headed towards the nearest food shop. I bought whatever Amadeus looked at, and pretty soon we had a whole pile of food.

"You can carry…?" Amadeus asked as we went to the check out to pay. I nodded.

"Easy," I said. "As long as you make sure it doesn't all fall off." He nodded.

As we left the town back the way we had came, so I could pick the trail back up again, Amadeus was unusually quiet, even for him. _It's not that he's quiet,_ I realised, _it's that he's thinking hard._ But I didn't find out what he was thinking about until later that day, as the sun was setting and as we set up camp in the middle of another glade.

"You told… I know about your home, and… you should…"

I stopped him short. "Amadeus, you don't have to tell me anything about you, just because I told you some things about me," I said.

"But…"

"Do you want to tell me about you?" I asked.

"But you told…"

"No, Amadeus, that's not what I am asking. Do _you_ want to tell me everything? Are you _ready_ to tell me anything?" Slowly, he shook his head. "Didn't think so," I said. "Now, are you going to eat or not?"

As we lay down next to each other later on, my arms wrapped around him to keep him warm, I thought of what I had said. Sure, I wanted to know everything about him. How could I not? I had imprinted on him, for crying out loud! But… But I didn't want to force him into telling me something, just because I had told him things.

_Anyway,_ a small voice at the back of my head said, _you haven't told him everything anyway, have you? You haven't told him about the whole imprinting thing._

I sighed, and Amadeus moved in his sleep. I looked down at the head pillowed on my chest.

"Love you," I whispered.


	4. Chapter 4

It was dark when I woke up, and for a moment I wondered why I had even woken up. I was lying on the floor, my arms wrapped tightly around Amadeus, who was still using my chest as a pillow.

"I don't know why I came with you," I heard him whisper. _Ah,_ I thought. _That explains why I'm awake._ "Not really. I mean… I knew, when I saw you, that you were… different. You look different. For God's sake, you were sitting there in just this pair of trousers. And…"

He stopped and sighed, before shifting his body slightly, moving nearer to me. "You explained why you ran," he said. "I… I want to tell you why I ran, too, I really do, and it makes no sense, me wanting to tell you. We've known each other for all of three days, or something ridiculous, and yet… But maybe it's because you're different. You can't deny it now, can you?"

I wondered whether to reply. Amadeus clearly still thought I was asleep – he wouldn't be talking like this otherwise – and even though he was talking to me, I didn't like to lie here and listen to what was private. He might even be talking because I had told him things earlier – well, it was probably yesterday now – and I didn't want that to be the reason that he was opening up to me now, even though I was sleeping. However, he didn't speak again, and I decided that it was best if I pretended I hadn't heard anything.

I was just drifting off to sleep again when Amadeus spoke again.

"I was born in Alabama," he whispered. "It was just me and my dad and my older brother. My mum died when I was five. She was the only one who called me Amadeus, you know. I insisted that everyone else called me by my middle name. Paul. She didn't, though. Paul was my father's choice of name, Amadeus was hers, and she refused to call me anything other than that.

"It was a small town, we lived in. Everyone knew everyone else, and we all got along. My best friend was called George, and… I loved him. Not like that, though. I never felt anything romantic for him. But he was my best friend in the whole world, and I would do anything for him.

"I was always slightly different, though. I mean… All my friends had girlfriends, and I did too, but… When George's first girlfriend broke up with him, he was devastated. When mine broke up with me, I was relieved, and not because she was horrible either. She was the nicest girl around. I didn't realise why until I was about fourteen, I suppose."

Here Amadeus stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. I wanted to hold him tight, to tell him that everything was okay, but I knew as soon as he knew I was awake, he would stop, and I could tell that whatever he was about to say was eating him up inside. He needed to carry on. I didn't move a muscle.

"I was walking down the sidewalk, past the bookshop," he continued after a while. "Just walking, just laughing. It was a grey day, even though it was summer, and I wanted the sun to shine. And then… I saw him.

"He was just walking along the sidewalk on the other side of the road, minding his own business. He was about three inches shorter than you, maybe an inch shorter than me, and he had the most gorgeous bronze hair and the deepest dark eyes that I had ever seen. He was beautiful; there was no other word for it.

"And as soon as I saw him, I…" I could feel Amadeus' breath against my chest becoming raged and uneven, and I had to resist the urge to comfort him. _He has to do this now,_ I thought. _He won't do this ever again if you stop him now. _"I realised why I had never… with girls… why… I realised I was… I was attracted to him."

I could feel his tears on my chest now, and the urge to comfort him almost overcame the knowledge that he had to let this all out. In the end, logic won, and I stayed as still as if I was asleep.

"I hated myself for a long time," he said at last. "My father and my brother had always told me that… that thinking like _that_ about guys was wrong, and I believed them. I thought I was sick and wrong, and I wanted to kill myself. One night, I very nearly did. But I learned to live with it. I learned to live with the fact that it was who I was.

"And then, when I was sixteen, I decided that I had had enough of hiding. I hadn't had a girlfriend ever since I had realised, and my friends were probably getting suspicious, so I thought I would come clean. I started with George. He came around to my house, when my father and my brother were out, and I sat him down, and I just… I just told him.

"He didn't even say anything. He just had this look of uttermost disgust on his face, and he got up, and he left. I thought that was the end. I thought that I had lost my best friend, but that it was the end of that. I vowed never to tell anyone else.

"But… But George did. It must've been George. When I next went to school, everyone ignored me. No one spoke to me. Even the teachers didn't speak to me if they could help it. It was like I wasn't there.

"But that was only for the first week. The second week was worse. My dad and my brother came back home the second week, and someone told them. I don't know who, but it doesn't matter. My brother stormed into my bedroom, my father followed him, and they grabbed me and… They told me I was an abomination. They told me I was evil, my father denied that he had had anything to do with my conception. They even started blaming my mother for how I had turned out."

He was shaking now, with rage as well as with the tears that were still falling onto my chest. But I knew he wasn't finished. I knew there was more to come, so I didn't move a muscle, and let him continue.

"When dad and Harry started getting violent, the rest of the town took it to mean that they could be violent too. It was horrible. They screamed at me, they threw things at me… Someone I had once considered a friend chased me with a knife. My ex-girlfriend tried to set my school locker on fire.

"The third week started, and dad threw me out of the house. To be honest, it was a relief. I knew where he had hidden the door key, so I sneaked back in, took some of my clothes and all of my money and ran. I've been running for two years, you know. And… Jake, if you heard any of that, please, don't hate me. I've been running for two years. I don't want to run any more."

"I don't hate you," I whispered, and Amadeus stiffened in my arms. "I really don't hate you. Amadeus, I…" _I love you._ "I'm sorry." He shivered in my arms, and I was suddenly filled with rage. How dare they do all those things to him? How dare they destroy him so much? How dare they hurt _my Amadeus_… It was only the fact that he was lying on my arm that stopped me from leaping up and running to Alabama right that moment, to kill them all.

"But I'm…"

"Don't you dare say you're evil!" I snarled. "Don't you dare say you're an abomination! You are not evil! You are not an abomination! Just because they all said you were, doesn't mean that you are!"

"But…"

"Amadeus, listen to me." I looked down at the top of his head. "Listen. You are a wonderful, kind person, and whatever they said to you, whatever they did to you, doesn't change that. Whether you love men or women doesn't change that!"

"Wouldn't know," he said. "You love Bella."

"Yes," I said. "I love Bella." _I probably always will love Bella, just a bit, even though I'm over her now. I loved her first, after all._

Amadeus interrupted my thoughts. "Then… you don't understand."

I frowned. "No, maybe I can't understand. I've never been to Alabama, I've never had a boyfriend, I've never loved anyone else apart from her…"

"I should go." Those three words cut me short. I stopped and just stared at him.

"Why?" I asked eventually.

"I want to stop running, but… You… Bella… I can't…"

"What are you trying to say?" He pressed his face to my chest, struggling not to burst into tears, and I tightened my grip on him. "Amadeus?"

"Smell nice," he said, his voice muffled slightly. "Smell nice, and… That café, when I walked in… You, just sitting there, and so… so…" He sighed. "You love Bella."

"Yes," I said, frowning.

"Then I should go."

"But why? I don't_ want_ you to go! God damn you, Amadeus, I…"

"I love you," he snarled suddenly, and he lifted his head up and turned so he was looking straight at me, and even in the darkness I could see the sudden rage in those green eyes. "When I walked into that café I was looking for a drink, and you had this hot chocolate, but you were just there, just amazingly there, and I had to go near you, had to try and talk to you, and you asked me to come with you, and I couldn't, logic said no, but I said yes, because I couldn't _not,_ and you looked after me and you were kind to me, and now I love you and I _can't_ watch you go back to your home and pine over Bella, and I can't hope that you'll feel anything for me when I'm a guy and you're straight!"

He tried to get up, but my arms held him close to my chest. "You're not going anywhere," I growled.

"Let me go!" he cried out, writhing against me. "Jake, let me go, I can't…"

"I can't let you go," I said. "I can't let you walk out of my life, now that I've found you." He stopped struggling.

"What?" he asked.

"There's this thing, this werewolf thing," I said. "It's… It's complicated, but basically… We call it imprinting. It's like… You're everything to me, Amadeus. I knew as soon as I saw you, that you would be the centre of my life. Without you in it, I don't think my life would be worth living."

"But… You're straight…" Amadeus frowned.

"I know. That doesn't matter, not to this. You're… I love you, for _you_, not for your gender. I want to be everything to you."

"And… Bella…"

"I love Bella, yes." I saw him wince, and tightened my grip even more. "But I… I'm over her now. I love you more. I more than love you."

"Why didn't you…?"

"I didn't realise you were gay, and I didn't realise that you felt anything for me other than possibly friendship. If all you wanted from me was a friend, that's what I would be. If you wanted a boyfriend, that's what I'd be. That's the nature of imprinting."

"You can't help it?"

"I don't _want _to help it."

"Your family?"

"I don't care if they hate you; I'm not letting you go. I'll leave with you, if that's what you want." Amadeus' frown was slowly replaced by a smile, and he rested his cheek against my chest again.

"'Night, Jake," he whispered.

"Good night," I whispered back. "Love you." This time, he heard it.

----------

Yes, two chapters in one day. Blame the conversation in chapter four running through my head all this morning. Once I'd written chapter four, I _had _to write chapter three. And also, thanks for reviews guys XD


	5. Chapter 5

I didn't know how many days we travelled, running through the day in comfortable silence, occasionally going into a town to buy more food with the money we had stolen. I didn't know how many nights we spend lying together in a wood, or out in the wilderness, my arms wrapped around him protectively as he wriggled closer for warmth and comfort. All I knew is that, one evening as the sun was nearing the western horizon, I recognised where we were.

For the first time in ages I reached my minds out to the rest of the pack. The only one who was in wolf form at that moment was Sam, and for that I was grateful.

_Sam,_ I called, slowing to a walk.

_Jacob!_ The surprise and delight in that one word shocked me to a halt. _I didn't think you'd be coming back quite so soon!_

_Why shouldn't I? _I asked defensively.

_No reason. Only, whenever I felt you in wolf form, running, I assumed you were still running away. You never gave word._

_I didn't want to,_ was my truthful reply. _I have something to tell you._

_What? _

_I've… I've imprinted._

_Really?_ The delight was back in Sam's voice again. _Who is she?_

_Listen, Sam, it's complicated,_ I tried to explain. _Can I talk to you privately about it, before the rest of the pack knows?_

_Sure._

_Thank you._

_Hey, and you came back just in time,_ Sam added.

_Why?_

_Bella's wedding's the day after tomorrow._

I smiled to myself, which, admittedly, is hard when you're a wolf. _Good,_ I replied._ See you at yours?_

_Sure. See you._ Then Sam faded away, phasing back into his human form.

It was then I realised that Amadeus had climbed off my back, and was standing in front of me, looking deep into my eyes with a frown. I blushed, and thanked my think coat.

"What's up?" he asked. I phased back into my human form and started pulling on the trousers that had been tied to my leg.

"I was talking to Sam," I explained. "I want to… you know… explain _this,_" I emphasised with a wave of my hand "before the rest of the pack find out."

"Will he… I mean, me and you… does he…?"

"He won't have a problem with us," I said. "At least, I hope he won't." I frowned. "No one _should_, because it is imprinting. It's not like I chose this."

"You mean…" I saw the hurt in Amadeus' eyes and realised exactly what I had said with a silent curse.

"Amadeus, just because I didn't choose it, doesn't mean I don't want it," I said softly. He began to smile again, and I held out my hand. "Come on," I said. "We're about an hour's walk away from Sam's house."

"Aren't you going… like wolf?" he asked.

"No," I said.

"Why?"

"Because… Well, because I think that this would be better. We get to talk this way." I held out my hand, and he took it before allowing me to lead him towards Sam's house.

The hour seemed to pass far too quickly, for me. I had not been able to talk to Amadeus much at all during the day, owing to the fact that I was in my wolf form, and when the end of the day had arrived, we had both been far too tired to talk. But now, we were still alert enough and had a whole hour to spend walking and talking. Most of the time, we talked about unimportant things, but occasionally a few more personal things slipped in.

"Never kissed a boy before," Amadeus had said at one point.

"How can you be sure that you like them?" I'd asked, only half joking. He'd given me a small smile.

"Believe me, I know," he'd said.

"I've never kissed a boy either," I'd said, and the conversation had deviated from that topic.

"I care about you a lot, you know?" I'd said slightly later.

"I know," Amadeus had said. "I… well… love you too." He'd blushed slightly, and I'd frowned, thinking about something that had often come into my mind as we had travelled.

"You don't have to, just because I've imprinted on you," I'd said.

"I know," was the reply. "But I… you… I don't know. I just know that… you mean a lot." I'd smiled at him, and the conversation had travelled onto more trivial matters.

"I'm sure everyone else will love you too," I'd said when we were barely minutes from Sam's house. Amadeus had glanced at me, looking decidedly ill. "Everything will be fine," I'd continued.

"Sure," he'd said, but he hadn't looked convinced.

"It will," I'd said, stopping him and turning him around until he faced me. "Everyone will love you, and everyone will accept you."

"Everyone?" he'd asked. I smiled.

"I can't account for the whole of Forks or anything," I'd said, "of even the whole of La Push, but the pack _will_ accept you, or we will leave."

"You… meant it, then?" I'd nodded.

But now we were here, standing outside Sam's place, watching the friendly light in the windows, I wondered just _what_ would happen. Of course, I _had_ meant it about leaving if the pack didn't accept Amadeus. He was the centre of my world now, and if he was unhappy, I would be too. I was quite prepared to leave the pack if I had to. I'd done it once before, after all. No, what I wasn't prepared for was the bit_before_ leaving – the bit when the pack decided that they weren't going to accept Amadeus, when I had to watch them pour scorn all over him, had to watch as every word drove deeper into him, salt on the wounds his family, his friends, his neighbours had made, which I had barely started to heal. If that came to pass, I didn't know _what_ I would do. I might not even get to take Amadeus away from them. One werewolf, after all, is nothing against a whole pack, and if I attacked one of them because of what they were saying, and the whole pack turned against me…

To my surprise, I felt Amadeus' hand in mine, and I looked down to see his face, worried, staring up at me. I frowned. _This is getting to be too common an occurrence,_ I thought.

"Be okay," he said. "Be fine." He was shaking – I could just about feel the tremors running through me from his hand – yet _he_ was trying to comfort _me._ I pulled him to me and hugged him tightly.

"Yes," I said, "everything _will_ be okay." I gave him a smile, trying to be reassuring, and we walked together towards the door.

Emily had obviously been cooking. As soon as I pushed open the door, left unlocked because who in La Push would burgle _Sam's_ house, the smell of fresh muffins wafted over me. I licked my lips and heard Amadeus take in a deep breath beside me.

"Hello!" I called. There was a cry of delight from the kitchen, and I heard footsteps approach, before Emily and Sam burst into the hall.

"Jake!" Sam cried, all exuberance. "You're back! And who's the…" His speech died in his throat as his eyes fell onto Amadeus, who shifted from one foot to the other in the awkward silence that followed. I opened my mouth, prepared to explain, or to comfort Amadeus, but Emily spoke first.

"You looked half starved," she said, and I realised that she was talking to Amadeus, not to me. "Come with me," she continued. "I've been baking muffins, and you look like you could do with a few."

"Thank you," Amadeus said in a small voice, and allowed Emily to guide him to the kitchen, a kind smile on her scarred face.

"What's your name?" I heard her say as the door shut behind them.

"So…" I said in the silence that followed, trying to avoid Sam's gaze.

"That was a shock," Sam said. "Why didn't you say anything about… about that, before?"

"I didn't want one of the others overhearing," was my reply. "I wanted to let you know first." Sam frowned.

"Well, this certainly is complicated," he said at last.

"Look," I said, "we'll leave the pack if you want, but I _can't_ leave him. Not now. Not…"

"Not ever," Sam finished for me, his frown deepening. I nodded. "You couldn't have at least warned me?" he asked at last.

"Sorry," I said. He sighed.

"It doesn't matter." There was a pause. "Well, I'm not sure how the rest of the pack will react, but you'll always be safe here," he finally said. I looked up at him, surprised.

"What?" I asked.

"I mean it, Jake. Maybe… No, there's no maybe about it, he _definitely_ wouldn't have been my choice for you, but he is the one you're meant for, and I can't argue with imprinting, and I can't abandon you because of it."

"His name is Amadeus," I said with a small smile on my face. Sam frowned. "His mother was a classical freak – his own words," I explained.

"Look, I'll be fine with it," he said. "It'll just take some getting used to, that's all."

"I'm not hiding," I said. He frowned at me.

"I didn't expect you to," he said, and my smile grew. He saw it, and smiled too. "Well," he said, "we can't let your starving boyfriend eat all of those excellent muffins now, can we?" I shook my head, and together we made our way to the kitchen.

I was surprised when I heard laughter, and even more surprised when I saw it was Amadeus laughing at something Emily had said. He looked relaxed, and more at home here than he ever had anywhere else. I almost growled. _What's she thinking?_ I thought. _He's_mine_, and she's not getting him!_

I walked around to behind Amadeus' chair, trying not to stalk, and rested one hand on his shoulder, and that is when I realised that he wasn't as relaxed as he had seemed. However, as soon as my hand touched him, he looked up at me and smiled, and I felt the muscles in his shoulder loosen.

_You were being stupid,_ I thought to myself as I smiled back at Amadeus. _Amadeus is _gay_, for goodness sake, and Emily has Sam. Anyway, maybe it's a good thing that he feels at home here. It _is_ going to be his home, after all._

"Are you enjoying those muffins, Amadeus?" Sam asked, smiling kindly.

"Yes, thank you," Amadeus said, turning his face from mine to Sam's.

"Has Jake told you about us?" he asked.

"You're… wolves," Amadeus said.

"Sam meant us two," Emily said. "Sam imprinted on me, too."

"Oh." Amadeus thought. "No," he said at last. "Jake not tell."

"Well, we know how you both feel, to some extent," Emily explained. "We'll be your friends." Sam nodded in agreement.

I couldn't see the look on Amadeus' face, but I knew exactly what it was. I could imagine precisely the curve of his mouth as he smiled slowly, and the happy glint in his eye.

"Thank you," he said.

----------

I just thought it would be amusing to mention that when I started adding chapters to this fic (when I was _forced_ to turn it from a one-shot to a chaptered fic, although I didn't need _much_ persuading...) I thought that I would stop at five chapters. However, chapter five is here, but the end is not. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, and chapter six should be coming along soon, depending on how much time I spend writing other things and doing coursework for school.


	6. Chapter 6

I still didn't really know what to expect, though, when we met the rest of the pack, although I had my suspicions that it wouldn't be great. Sam and Emily had understood, but that was because they knew what we were going through – they knew that I couldn't help this even if I had wanted to. Quil would probably understand too, and maybe Jared would, since the two of them had imprinted too, but the rest of them…

I lay in bed, having woken up ridiculously early and unable to sleep, for nearly two hours before Amadeus started stirring in my arms. I watched as his eyes fluttered open and he turned to stare at me.

"How long you awake?" he asked.

"A while," I admitted. He frowned.

"You worried?"

"I… Yeah, a bit."

"Don't worry." I sighed.

"I know."

By the time we had got up and got dressed, the sun had risen, and we made our way to the kitchen to get something to eat. Sam and Emily were still upstairs, probably still asleep, so we helped ourselves to toast and sat in the kitchen, talking quietly. We had just started washing up when I heard the front door open.

"Only me, Sam!" a voice called, and I recognised Quil. Two sets of footsteps approached the kitchen, and I turned to Amadeus to see his eyes wide. However, before I could do anything, the door opened and Quil and Embry stepped in, and froze.

"Jake?" Quil asked. I nodded warily, watching Embry's eyes. Quil hadn't noticed Amadeus, who was standing on the other side of me, but Embry was staring at him.

"Who's this?" he asked.

"When did you come back?" Quil asked at the same time. They both turned to each other, and then Quil looked beyond me and saw Amadeus, who I could just about see out of the corner of my eyes, hunched up against the kitchen counter. I took a step back and he gratefully slid his arms around my waist, putting his chin on my shoulder.

"This is Amadeus," I said. "We arrived yesterday evening."

"But… Why didn't you tell us you were back?" Quil asked. Embry turned to him.

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked. "They're… together, and they don't want scandal." Quil frowned.

"I didn't realise you were gay, Jake," he said. "You could've told me."

"I'm not gay," I said. "But Amadeus… he's…" I sighed. "I imprinted on him."

"You _imprinted_ on him?" Embry's frown deepened as he spoke. "But… You're only supposed to imprint on a girl. That's how it works."

"Evidently not."

"But imprinting on a guy… I thought only Leah would do that. And if you're with a guy, you can't have children or anything, and you can't pass on the wolf genes, and…"

"Embry, leave him alone," Quil said quietly. "If he imprinted on Amadeus, that's who he's meant for."

Embry turned to Quil, his eyes wide, and then frowned, seeming to remember, like I just had, that Quil had imprinted on a two year old girl. "It's still strange," he said.

"But it's happened, and that's how it's meant to be." Embry stared at Quil for a moment, then sighed.

"Okay, fine," he said. "Whatever." He turned to look at Amadeus again. "Pleased to meet you, I'm sure."

"You could sound more sincere," I said.

"Well, it's going to take some getting used to, you know. Having a new guy around, and all."

I made my way to the kitchen table and sat down, Amadeus sitting in a seat next to me. "I got used to it pretty quickly," I said.

"Well, you're…"

"Embry, shut up." Quil moved forwards too and took his own seat at the table, ignoring the look of indignation on Embry's face. "Now, Amadeus, tell us more about yourself."

Amadeus' words were halting at first, and he refused to look at Embry, but by the time Sam and Emily had come down, even Embry was laughing and talking, all thoughts about how strange Amadeus and I were seemingly forgotten. However, Emily and Sam's presence changed the conversation to more serious topics.

"When are you going to tell the others?" Quil asked as he bit into a pancake Emily had just made.

"I… I don't know," I said truthfully. "Do you think that they'll be a pain about it?"

"Leah will be," Embry said immediately. "She'll be a pain about everything."

"She feels guilty about you going, though," Quil said.

"That won't help. She'll just be even more of a pain."

"And the rest?" I prompted.

"They… Well, they shouldn't be worse than I was," Embry said, and he had the decency to look embarrassed as he said that. Even so, I was quite surprised when Amadeus turned to him and said in a quiet voice:

"It's okay."

I was even more surprised when the rest of the pack was accepting. Possibly it was because they saw Sam was behind me, as well as Embry and Quil, but after the initial shock of seeing me with another guy, they began to look past that, to Amadeus' personality, and they accepted him. Jared's girlfriend Kim seemed to take a special liking to my quiet imprintee and dragged him off in a corner to tell him all about life with a wolf pack. His eyes were wide with something akin to fear, but I laughed and let him go, knowing that he would be safe, and he seemed to realise this too. Soon Kim was talking animatedly at him, and he was even saying some halting comments of his own.

And then Leah walked in. I don't know why she was late, I don't know why she had ignored Sam's request for everyone to come to his house for so long, but I was actually glad that she had. She couldn't turn the rest of the pack against us now. Even so, the whole pack still stiffened as she strode into the room. Making sure Amadeus hadn't noticed anything was wrong, I went to meet her by the door, where she stood, staring around the room. As I got to her, her eyes fell upon Amadeus, and she frowned.

"Who's that?" she asked. "He's got something to do with you, hasn't he?"

I remembered one of the last things she'd said to me: _"Time to move on, boy."_ I smiled humourlessly. "I've moved on," I said.

"What?" Evidently, Leah didn't remember the conversation as well as I had.

"You told me to move on from Bella," I clarified. "Well, here I am. I've moved on."

"You've moved on… with…" She stopped, frowning, and I wondered what was going on through her head. Maybe she remembered the last time she had tried to hurt me, and I had just hurt her back. Well, it had worked, hurting her back. She swallowed her words and even though she looked like she'd eaten a lemon, her words were perfectly cordial: "I hope you'll be very happy together."

"I'm sure we will." Threats filled my mind, but I didn't want to talk to Leah more than was necessary, and I didn't want to hurt her any more. She was going to be nice to Amadeus, at least on the surface, and I… Well, last time we had talked, I was hurting and just wanted to hurt everyone else more, to make myself feel better. This time, I wasn't hurting, and I didn't want to hurt anyone any more – not even Leah.

I did, however, head straight to where Amadeus and Kim were still talking and wrap my arms around him. He looked up at me, a frown on his face.

"Just let me know if Leah gives you any problems," I said. His frown deepened.

"Leah?"

"Female wolf." I pointed her out, and he nodded.

"Okay."

The day went quickly, with everyone talking to each other, and soon Amadeus was well and truly welcomed into the pack. Only Leah ignored him, but both me and Amadeus would rather she was ignoring him than she was trying to hurt him. Towards the end of the afternoon, the members of the council came to the house, including my dad, and although they were more apprehensive than the pack had been – probably because they didn't really _understand_ the true nature of imprinting the way we all did – they were perfectly polite to Amadeus and myself, and my father even seemed to get along well with him, which was a relief.

Soon, though, it was getting dark, and Kim had to go home.

"Bye, Maddy!" Kim called, waving to Amadeus as she left with Jared. I stared at him, and he just smiled.

"She's nice," was the only comment he had to say. I raised my eyebrows, but when Sam spoke, I turned to look at him, my face flushing as I realised I had no idea what he had just said to me.

"Sorry, what did you say?" I asked.

Sam smiled. "I said don't forget that it's Bella's wedding day tomorrow," he said. I frowned.

"Does she know that I'm back yet," I asked.

"I don't think so. No one has told her, anyway."

"Are you guys going?"

"Well, we were invited," Sam said. "The whole pack was."

"Well," my father said, coming up behind me before I could reply to Sam, "we'd best be going, Jake. Don't want to intrude on Sam's hospitality any more." I frowned slightly.

"It's no bother," Sam said.

"Really, I insist." My frown deepened, and all the way home I pondered about my father's behaviour. _He's never minded me being with the pack before,_ I thought. _Why does it matter so much that I go home now?_

I was so confused about that, I even mentioned it to Amadeus as we curled up together in my small bed. He smiled at me as he replied:

"You don't know?"

"No," I said, "that's why I'm asking!"

"Should ask Billy, not me."

"I know I should, but… He's been acting weird all evening."

"Jealous," was Amadeus' verdict. My eyes widened.

"What's my own father got to be jealous of?" I asked. "Why would he be jealous of me?" As soon as I said that, I realised it was stupid – I was young, which was enough for any man to be jealous of his son. _But he's never acted like this before,_ a voice in the back of my head said.

"Not you," Amadeus said, disturbing my thoughts. "Sam." I frowned.

"Why would he…" And then it hit me, why my father was acting so strange. _It's not enough that he has a werewolf for a son,_ I thought, _or that said son has to go and imprint on a guy that no one knows. But then… I went to Sam first. I didn't even think of going to my father, and he's my _father_, someone I should be able to go when I have problems, even if they are_weird_ problems._ I sighed. Was I messing everything up by being with Amadeus?

_You can't leave him,_ a small voice said to me in the back of my mind

_I wasn't planning to._

"Wasn't planning what?" Amadeus asked, and I realised that I had spoken aloud.

"Wasn't planning to leave you," I said, and he smiled, then yawned.

"'Night," he murmured.

"Love you," I whispered back, but instead of closing my eyes, I slipped out of the bed. I felt Amadeus' eyes on my back, watching me go, but he didn't say anything, and I was grateful for that. Maybe he knew where I was going.

I pushed open my father's bedroom door and saw him sitting in bed, reading. When he realised I was there, surprise lit up his face.

"Jacob," he said, putting the book down, "what's wrong?" I bit my lip.

"I want to apologise," I said.


	7. Chapter 7

My father insisted that Amadeus and I wear suits to the wedding. "The rest of the pack is," he said, "so you have to too."

"But we don't have suits," I complained.

"I'm sure that Amadeus will fit into one of mine," came the reply. "And Sam has a spare one you can borrow, Jacob." Sam's spare suit felt tight across my shoulders, but Emily insisted that I looked wonderful, and at least the legs weren't too short.

Amadeus, though… The last I'd seen of him was him being shoved into the bathroom, a blue bundle in his arm, the strict instructions to have a decent shower following him in. I'd winced when I'd heard that. It was true that neither of us had been particularly focused on personal hygiene when we'd been travelling, but at least I could have a wash in various streams in my wolf form, and I wouldn't get frozen by the cold water anyway. Amadeus needed hot showers and soap, and in the excitement of the previous day, and the rest of the pack meeting him, there had not been enough time to send him in that direction.

Even then, I wasn't expecting what I saw when the bathroom door next opened, over half an hour later. He stepped out, a shy smile on his face, and I was speechless. The old suit fit him perfectly, making him look slender instead of skinny, and the blue was less harsh on his colouration than black would have been. His green eyes sparkled below a mop of dark gold hair that refused to lie flat. As I stood there, he bit his lip.

"What you think?" he asked.

"I…" I covered the distance between us and wrapped my arms around him, pulling him to my chest. Close to, he smelled clean and fresh, but there was still the scent of Amadeus, the scent that I always associated with him. "Perfect." I saw colour rise in his cheeks and smiled.

Sam's cough made me look up, and there was amusement sparkling in his eyes. "We have to go," he said. "The wedding will start soon."

The church was not that far from the High school, and was not the sort of place that I thought Bella would get married in. _Maybe it's the leech's idea,_ I thought as I parked the car outside it and helped my dad towards the door, Amadeus following. We were quite early, but even so, there were still many people around. I felt like the whole town was watching me – or, more accurately, watching Amadeus by my side. He was new, and they didn't know who he was, and so, of course, they watched him like hawks.

"Maddy!" I smiled as I heard that familiar voice, and saw Kim heading towards us. She hugged Amadeus and they started talking to him, and he seemed happy enough, so I left them and went inside the church to get Billy comfortable in his seat. One of the leeches was there – one of the female ones, I couldn't remember her name – and as she came over I forced myself not to wrinkle my nose at her stench.

"I thought you would come, even if Bella said you wouldn't," she said with a beaming smile on her face. I frowned.

"What?" I asked.

"I thought you would come, even though you'd run off." _Alice, that was it._

"That's nice."

"Bella was so insistent that you wouldn't be coming, though. It'll be a nice surprise for her to see you." She smiled. "Glad you could make it."

"So am I."

"Well, I've got to go; organising weddings takes a lot of time. Enjoy it."

_Ah,_ I thought as I watched her walk away, _that's why this wedding is so different to what I think Bella would've wanted._ I smiled to myself. _I wonder what Bella really thinks of all this._

Amadeus' face came into my mind, and I headed back to the outside of the church, where he was still talking to Kim. Jared was standing behind Kim, his arms around her, and I headed towards them, planning on copying the gesture. But something made me stop, and that something was the looks of the rest of the town. I frowned. They were still staring at Amadeus, but I saw they weren't just staring any more, and the stares were no longer benign. Whispers were going around the people standing there, and I realised that they were speculating about who Amadeus was – and probably why he had come with me, too.

At first I thought that Amadeus wasn't aware of it, but as I came to stand by his side I realised that he was tenser than usual, and his eyes occasionally flickered to the side, looking around warily. He didn't smile when he saw me, either, and I felt rage building up inside me, directed at the crowd who were obviously distressing him. Forcing it down, I wrapped my arm around his shoulders, and I felt his muscles loosen, even as the whispers increased.

_He didn't think I'd accept him, with everyone watching,_ I realised, and the rage almost overcame me. I forced it down, concentrating on Kim's words and the fresh smell of Amadeus next to me instead, and soon I was calm enough to head into the church, my arm still wrapped around him.

Luckily, Billy was sitting in the middle of where the leech – _Alice, must call her Alice, she's Bella's friend_ – had decreed for us werewolves to sit. Amadeus sat between Billy and I, and the rest of the pack formed a wall around us, shielding us from the whispers of the town. I ignored them and concentrated, for once in my life, at the lee… vampires. All apart from Cullen – Edward – were there, but it wasn't long before the Cold One who had stolen Bella's heart away from me made his appearance.

_You don't need Bella's heart any more. You have Amadeus'._ I smiled at that thought, and turned to Amadeus, but to my surprise, his eyes were wide, and he was staring at Edward.

"What is it?" I whispered, turning back to face said vampire. He was dressed immaculately in a slightly old style suit that I actually thought suited him well, but there was nothing odd about him – nothing that screamed _vampire_ at anyone who didn't know. _Amadeus does know, though,_ a voice in the back of my mind said. _Maybe that's why he's staring. _

_If it was that, though, he would have been staring at the rest of the vampires. He knows about them._ I realised that Amadeus hadn't answered my question, so I repeated it.

"It's… That's _him?_" Amadeus asked.

"If you mean it's Edward Cullen, Bella's soon-to-be husband, then yes." I frowned. "Why are you asking?"

"Oh… Well…"

"Come on, Amadeus, what is it?"

"He's _that man_."

"That man?" Amadeus nodded.

"The first man," he added, and suddenly I understood. Unbidden, my thoughts flew back to when Amadeus was telling me about his life, before he had met me.

"_I was walking down the sidewalk, past the bookshop," _Amadeus had said. _"Just walking, just laughing. It was a grey day, even though it was summer, and I wanted the sun to shine. And then… I saw him."_

And something else that Amadeus had said floated into my head, something that made my heart freeze.

"_I realised I was… I was attracted to him."_

"Different eyes though," Amadeus interrupted my thoughts.

"This was… You were attracted to this guy?" _Please, please let him say no…_ Amadeus nodded.

"Pretty handsome," he said.

"Are you… still…?" I couldn't finish it. I knew what the answer was, even though Amadeus didn't respond. I'd known even before I'd asked the question. _Of course he's still attracted to the leech. Haven't you _seen_ him? He's a vampire, he's _made_ to be beautiful. He's _made_ to attract people, to lure them in and take their blood and feast on their vulnerability. And… first Bella, now Amadeus. Or maybe it should be first Amadeus, now Bella. Even so… does he have to take _everyone_ that I care for? Does that leech have to poison every aspect of my life?_

_Because that's what's happened. He hurt Bella then took her from me like a toy that he could just play with. And now, when I find the one person who means everything to me, when I find the one person I can be happy with after Bella, when I find the person I care about the most in the world… He's got to Amadeus first. He took Amadeus from me even before we had met – even before I _had_ Amadeus. And that's it, isn't it? I've never _had_ Amadeus. I've imprinted on someone that I can never even have…_

I wanted to run. I wanted to hurt Edward Cullen, leech, Cold One, I wanted to kill him, and then run again, run far away from La Push, from Forks, away from everything. Only this time I wouldn't stop running. This time, I would run until I was as far away from them as possible, until I was alone.

If I couldn't get that far away… Well, I doubted that I could hear them in my head, hear their sympathy at having lost the two people I cared about most in the world to Edward Cullen, if I was dead.

"Jake?" Amadeus' voice broke into my thoughts, and I felt his hand on my arm. The wedding march was starting, and Bella was going to walk down the aisle soon, and Amadeus wasn't staring at the first 'man' he'd ever fallen for. He was staring at _me_…

"What?" I asked.

"What's wrong?"

"I… Nothing."

"Not going to leave."

"What?" My eyes widened. _Does he know what I was thinking?_

"Not going to leave you. Love you. Never leaving… unless you…"

"I'm not going to tell you to leave," I whispered harshly. "Sorry, I just…" _He loves me… He's not going to leave me for the leech…_

"Bella's coming – be quiet!" Jared hissed behind me, and I turned to see... Bella. Looking at her caught my breath. She was swathed in white, lace and silk flowing around her. _Alice must've been behind the dress,_ I thought when I saw the self-consciousness in her face, but she was smiling too, and her smile was beautiful. She started to walk, and I saw something familiar on her wrist: the bracelet I had given her. Yet the sight of that didn't thrill me anywhere near as much as it would've done before I'd met Amadeus.

I was suddenly acutely aware of Amadeus beside me, looking withdrawn, a frown on his face, and I realised that our places were reversed. The irony of it made me smile even as I reached out surreptitiously with my hand and grasped his. He glanced at me, shock all over his features, but I smiled and gave his hand a squeeze, and he smiled in return before the pair of us turned back to the wedding going on in front of us. But as I watched, my thoughts were on the young man beside me. If ever I'd needed proof that Amadeus was more to me than Bella had ever been, this wedding would have been it. Seeing Bella then had brought back all I had ever felt for her, but Amadeus' hand in my own and his warmth beside me was more important to me than Bella, even if she was wearing the bracelet I had given her. _I love you, Amadeus. I more than love you. Just don't forget it._

--------

I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that chapter seven was twice as long as I intended it to be. Therefore, I have actually got chapter eight somewhere. However, I have no time to edit it and check it, since I should actually be doing school work, since, you know, I'm at school, on a school computer, so you'll have to wait. I'll probably do it tomorrow. At home.

What you may not be pleased to hear is that chapter eight is the last chapter. It's longer than this one! Don't kill me!


	8. Chapter 8

The wedding seemed to go on for hours. I'd never been particularly into churches, and prolonged exposure to this one was starting to irritate me. Singing the hymns was tedious beyond imagination, especially because I didn't really know any of them. _At least it allows me to hear Amadeus sing,_ I mused. To my surprise, Amadeus was surprisingly good at singing, and it was nice to hear him construct proper sentences for once. _I must ask him to sing for me at some point._

In fact, the wedding was so boring that I even started to ponder _why_ Amadeus had his strange speech pattern, and how best to get him to speak normally. It was a relief when it was finally proclaimed that Edward and Bella were man and wife, and that Edward could kiss her. Cheers followed the happy couple outside, and when the whispers started up again, they weren't about Amadeus and me.

The party afterwards was at the Cullen's huge house. I must admit, when I saw the large collection of cars in front it, I was quietly impressed. Also… well, I didn't know whose the sports car was, but they were very lucky that I no longer had the impulse to hurt Edward for stealing Bella from me any more. Claws made light work of any paintwork, I'd found in past experiences.

Edward and Bella were standing at the door, still in their formal wear, and I headed towards them, my hand in Amadeus', the rest of the pack around me. I knew immediately when Bella saw me. Her eyes suddenly brightened, even as her mouth dropped open in shock. Edward saw it too, and he turned to look at us. When he saw me, he nodded.

"I didn't think you'd come!" Bella gushed when we stood by the door.

"I couldn't miss your wedding," I replied. "You're Bella."

"My Jacob." She smiled.

"Who's your friend?" Edward asked.

"Oh, sorry." I pulled Amadeus forwards. "This is Amadeus."

"Pleased to meet you." Bella held out her hand and after a brief pause, Amadeus shook it.

"Where did you two meet then?" Edward asked. The corner of his mouth was turned up slightly, and I suddenly remembered his ability to read minds, and what he must've seen about Amadeus in mine.

"A café," Amadeus replied. _He doesn't know about Cullen's power. I need to tell him._

"We can't let you neglect the rest of your guests," I said, leading Amadeus inside. I felt Bella's eyes on the back of my head as we walked through the door, but soon we were inside, and I could turn to Amadeus and talk to him.

"There's something I need to mention about Edward," I said.

"What?" Amadeus asked.

"He can read minds."

Amadeus frowned. "What?"

"He can, seriously, Amadeus. He can read minds. It's a vampire thing."

"All vampires…?"

"No, not all. But they have… special abilities. Special powers. Some of them do, anyway. Mind reading just happens to be Edward's."

"Okay." Amadeus nodded. "I'm hungry. Any food?"

"There probably is somewhere." As I started looking around for a buffet table, I realised that I was starving as well. The wedding had dragged on for so long that breakfast seemed like five days away. It was Amadeus who saw the long white table first, though, and he dragged me to it.

"Don't eat it all," I heard as I started helping myself. Turning, I saw a smiling Emily standing behind me, and I smiled in return.

"Are you enjoying the party?" I asked.

"It's okay," Emily said. "It's been nice seeing Bella again. She hasn't been around La Push much. Probably too caught up in all this wedding business."

"Probably." I wasn't entirely sure myself, but I didn't think Edward would suddenly stop her from going– I didn't think he'd be _able_ to stop her from going – and that seemed like the only other explanation.

"She wants to see you, too," Emily added. "She told me that she wanted to talk to you."

"What about?"

"I don't know, actually. She wouldn't say." As Emily started helping herself to the buffet, I wondered what Bella had to say to me. _Maybe she wants to apologise. But what would she apologise for? It's not like she forced me to love her. It's not like she forced Edward to run off, forced him to hurt her like that. It's not like she forced herself to love Edward more than she loved me._

However, it was quite a while before I found out what Bella wanted. I didn't follow her around the room with my eyes like I would've done once, but I did catch sight of her occasionally, as I talked to other guests at the party, watching their eyes on Amadeus. I think it was only the fact that people were more interested in Bella and Edward's wedding that decreased the amount of whispers. I was expecting more than I heard, anyway. The pack accepting Amadeus and me was one thing. The town of Forks accepting us was another. They had no obligation to accept us. They weren't as closely linked to me as the pack was.

_I don't need Forks to accept us, anyway. I just hope that Bella doesn't turn her back on us, and I hope she doesn't hurt Amadeus._

Eventually, though, I felt her hand on my arm. Amadeus was talking to Kim and Bella's school friend Angela, and I'd left him to it when I realised that the two of them didn't seem inclined to go all homophobic on him. Kim, especially, had already accepted him, and I hoped that she would stand up for him if anyone else turned on him. Angela's boyfriend was my main concern just then, but he was not around at that moment, so I allowed myself to relax and turn to look at Bella.

Close up, she was even more beautiful that she had been walking down the aisle, and she looked more flustered and less perfect. _More human,_ I realised, and shivered as I remembered what Edward was going to do to her.

"Hello," I said, trying to cover the sudden discomfort I felt.

"Hi," Bella said, smiling. "I seriously didn't think you'd come, and Alice said she didn't know, because she can't see you guys. I just… well, thanks for coming."

"It's nothing." I smiled. "I didn't think I would come, either."

"What changed your mind, then?"

"I…" I thought back. I had originally decided to head back so I could give Bella one last chance, but I didn't want to give her one last chance any more. I wanted her to stay with her leech, because I didn't want her messing up me and Amadeus. "You really don't think I would miss _your_ wedding, do you?" I said at last, still smiling.

Bella frowned. "Jacob, I love Edward, you know…"

"I know you do," I interrupted. "I didn't come back to steal you away from him."

She looked slightly taken aback. "Well… good."

"I mean it, Bella." I could see Amadeus approaching me in the corner of my eye, and I held out my hand for his. He slipped it into mine gratefully, a smile dancing at the corners of his mouth, and I pulled him to my side and let go of his hand in favour of wrapping my arm around his waist. "I'm over you."

"You're…" Bella's eyes flickered to the arm around Amadeus' waist before she focused back on my face. "You're with _him?_"

"Don't insult him," I warned, and there was a slight growl at the back of my throat.

"Sorry." She actually looked it, too, and I relaxed slightly. "It's just… It's a shock to find out that someone you love is gay." I squeezed Amadeus reassuringly, fully aware at the tensing of his muscles when Bella had said 'love'.

"I'm not gay," I said, and smiled. "I'm Amadeus-sexual." Amadeus snorted beside me.

"Well… Jake, can I ask you something in private?"

"Anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of Amadeus."

"But I'd…"

"Bella, Amadeus is a part of my life. I want him to be a part of _all_ my life, and that means not keeping things from him. You can speak about this in front of him."

Bella blushed. "It's just… Well, you're not with him because I'm with Edward, are you?" she finally asked.

"What?" Rage suddenly flared up within me, and I forced it down. "You think that I would… Bella, I _love_ Amadeus. _That's_ why I'm with him."

"But you… you were never gay before. You were never attracted to boys before."

"I'm not just attracted to Amadeus, though," I clarified. "I love him. He's the centre of my life. Bella, I _imprinted_ on him." Bella's mouth hung open in a silent O of surprise. "You know what that means, don't you? I told you all about Quil and Claire, and Sam and Emily, and Jared and Kim. Amadeus is _everything_ to me."

"I didn't realise," she finally said.

"Well, now you do." She nodded, biting her lip, and I sighed. "Sorry. I was being harsh."

"It's… It's okay. I think I understand why."

"Can we start again?" I asked, and Bella smiled.

"Hi Jake," she said. "Hi, Amadeus."

"Hi," I replied, and Amadeus smiled and greeted her too.

The conversation the second time around was much more fun. Bella told me all about the vampires organising the wedding, and complained that the weather was not what she would've wanted for her wedding day.

"At least no rain," Amadeus had said at that point.

"True," had been her reply, and she had smiled at Amadeus. It was then I knew she had truly accepted Amadeus and me as a couple, and that made me smile too. _Of course, she knows what imprinting is. She knows that I can't help it. I just hope she realises that I don't _want_ to help it, either._

"Well, it's been nice talking to you again," I said as I saw the rest of the pack preparing to go.

"Yes, it has," Bella said, but there was a frown on her face. "Jake… I'm… I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"Well… I feel guilty about you running off, you know? I mean, you loved me, and then I had to send you that invitation… Maybe I should have asked you in person. Maybe I should have made it more personal."

_She doesn't know about Edward's letter,_ I realised. _Shall I tell her?_ But I decided not to mention it. _It's her first night as a married woman. I don't want her and her husband falling out, even if her husband _is_ the leech._

"It's nothing," I said finally. "It wasn't your fault."

"I still feel guilty."

"Don't. I'm not going to forgive you for something that doesn't need forgiving, so stop feeling guilty about it."

"Fine." She smiled. "Bye, Jake."

I smiled back, even as I realised what was going to happen next. _Edward is going to change her, and I'll never see her as human again._ "Bye, Bella. Keep safe."

"And you." She turned to Amadeus. "Keep Jacob safe."

"I will," he said. And then we were gone, and I could remember the tears in her eyes, and I almost felt like crying myself when I remembered what Edward was planning on doing to her.

Amadeus waited until we were back at home before he asked me what was wrong, and I couldn't help the tears fall then.

"She's being turned," I said, trying not to let the tears affect my voice. "She's becoming a vampire. I'll never see her as who she really is ever again."

"It's okay," Amadeus said, and he wrapped his arms around me. I allowed my tears to fall onto his shoulder, to be soaked up by the suit he still wore, and sobbed silently.

"I shouldn't be upset," I said when my tears had finally dried up. "I have you, after all."

"But you love Bella." There was no accusation in that voice, and I realised that he completely understood me.

"Thank you," I said, and the corners of his lips lifted.

"I love you. I'm here for you." His eyes were sparkling into mine, and I could feel everything I felt for him building up inside me.

"I love you too," I whispered, and lowered my mouth to his.

_finis_

_---------- _

Don't kill me, but this is _definitely _the last chapter of _Sunrise_. I have too much other stuff on at the moment, and since I never planned this to go longer than one chapter, I think this has got pretty far. Even when I decided to carry on, though, I never wanted to get passed the wedding, and the last chapter turned into two...

Also, cookies to everyone who reviewed! And thanks (and extra cookies) SlashFan69 who reviewed every single chapter. (Also, please don't hate me for stopping!)  
And a quick thing to LOL-ninjas-stole-my-homework: YAY pirate socks! And I'm sorry, but I don't think there will be a sequel, even though I've got attached to Amadeus now. Have more cookies instead?  
Also, katana777: Thanks for pointing out that website. I'll look into it if and when I have more time.

But please don't kill me guys!


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